"I will tell you, that is one thing that has me curious about this mission. I mean, there are already combat vessels, armed with some heavy lasers, but every time the captain mentions that ship he calls her a warship like she is something completely new." Marney took the Fidel and accepted a light from Hue as well.

"I met the two new crewmen, one looks like a space rat, a lunar by his accent. I dont think he has ever seem anything other than the insides of a station, or a ship. The other looks tough, marine aerojock or something like that." she said, puffing on the cigar.

"You might be right about the Celeste being something new. And something bad as far as the colonies are concerned." She looked around then leaned in closer to the two of them. "Some new fangled goody the UE has probably cooked up. Take out P3X9 and the other colonies will fall inline." She leaned back in her seat."When this mission is over, I am not going to wait around for my payment. This is still alittle to fishy. And I have a bad feeling that the "payment" will be a bullet in the head. I mean we are going to be all over that ship, prepping it for tow. I doubt that the UE will let us walk away with any info we might gather about the ship.""Especially those of us who are from the colonies." She finished her beer, she then gathered up the empty bulbs and went a disposed of them in the recycle shoot before returning to the table. Micky looked to both Lt. Marney and Hue. Thinking about something Marney had said. "A lunar on this mission? What is their station?" She was curious as to what the Lunar would be doing on their ship.

"I can tell you why they picked the Ballard," Marney said, taking another puff on her cigar. "Captain Stern is a hardliner, they have cooked up a deal with him, a fat paycheck to keep his crew quiet, and a commision in the UE Space Navy." she said with a conspiratorial tone.

"You know he is a South African, and they supported the UE movement whole heartedly, plus he is decorated, and has a long service career. I think they are planning on making him something like a rear admiral."

"As for the Celeste, that is why we were told hands off. They dont want anyone getting into her computer systems or anything like that. If the crew is fine, we might just be giving her a jumpstart or we might tow them in, but may never step foot aboard her, the UESN crew would prep her for tow."

"That's assuming that her crew is fine." She shrugged. "If not we have to go aboard and find out what happened to the crew. Plus prep her for tow." Micky rubbed her nose briefly. She wasnt one for cigar smoke. Before she could say another word her wristwatch went off. "Sorry guys. I hate to call it an early night but I have been up for a day or so." She removed herself from her seat. "Thanks for the beers and the game Hue. " She then nodded to Marney. "See you both back onboard the Ballard."Micky left the bar and made her way back to the ship. Once in her quarters she removed her shoes and set her watch for five hours. Micky went to sleep while the rest of the crew was busy elsewhere.

The interior of the ship was both dark and quiet as Micky made her way to her quarters. The main lights had been extinguished for the time being and only the emergency strip lights at the bottoms of the corridors were burning. Far from an ominous feel, the ship simply felt asleep, dormant for a while. She could hear a few distant noises, clangs and other noises. It was likely the strange duo of engineers, Pockets and Pliers doing maintainence on the Bally while she was powered down.

"Night Micky," hue turned to Marney, "I think she hit the nail on the head that time. I had better hit the rack before I drink much more or I'm going to end up with a hangover tomorrow." He glanced at the bar, "No disrepsect intended but I think it'd be best if you left soon too." Hue made his way wearily back to the docking bay. Before he went out on the outrigger he lit one more cigar and spent a good twenty minutes enjoying the teasing armoa. Clintons were alright but they left a after taste, and cigarettes were packed with more chemicals than a Marine chem kit. Na, a Fidel now that was a smoke, some people said they still rolled Fidels on virgin girls' legs on the night after puberty back in old Cuba.

Hue enjoyed the last deacaying bud then desposed of it. Hue hurried onto the outrigger and onto the ship. It was eeire quiet sounds followed each step, once the low level lighting went out along the corridor he was in Hue didn't even realise he had pulled his pistol and almost shot a cleaning bot behind him. Hue breathed a low sigh of relief when the low level lights came back on he holstered his weapon but he still left it loose and easily accessed too. He made it back to his room with out further incident. He stashed the Sunjet under his pillow and put the holster in a black bag that had a thumb print lock on it that held also a blocky DX2 combat pistol and a few other rare and odd items Hue had collected on his. A piece of a TP1 tank armor that he had killed by grabbing and injured soldiers Straight Arrow and blowing the tank up while taking most of the back blast himself so his charges weren't further injured.

Suddenly Hue found himself in his memorries back on the coast of Diamundes primary continent. D-Day, more than forty six combat shuttles had pumted through hte atomshpere to the ocean below to let off three times that number hover craft that each conveyed a twelve man squad of Marines to the coast. The Marine hover armor came over the top of beach hill at a hundred plus miles per hour only to meet more than a Battalion of TP1 Main Battle Tanks. The beasts had thick armor hides only penetrable by specificaly designed Straight Arrow and similiar desgn weapons. In seconds several Marine transports were destroyed or in among the tanks. the only thing that kept them alive was their shocking speed.

Corpseman Long's squad transport had been hit with an AP round that passed through the driver, killing him, taking off the head of Corperal Dean, and passing through the chest of PFC Dark. Hue had hit the emergancy release on the back hatch...

Hue shook himself out of the painful moments of reliving the first day. He stowed his clothes and climbed into the bed.

Pockets watched the refueling to make sure the pump-monkeys knew what they were doing. Then she went and grabbed a workout, a shower, and a long nap. When she got up, there was still an hour or two left of shore leave, so she wandered into the station to do a very small amount of sightseeing.

The ship came back to life with an hour to go before departure. The main lights came on, the reactor came back to life under the careful eye of the engineering team. The power hiccup seemed to have vanished, but Pockets was not so easily decieved, most mechanical glitches would hide until a ship was underway and away from repair facilities.

Captain Stern sat on the bridge, his eyes were red and bleary from too much caffiene and tobacco, and not enough sleep. The holoprojectors displayed external views of the spaceframe of the dock, Tybee station, as well as displaying a news feed from the UENN, United Earth News Network. Hostilities were flaring in the belt region as Belters proposed to blockade Earth from belt, and jovian products. The UE was responding with saber rattling and their general charming selves. The UE president Gerard DuGalle called for peace and negotiations, and hoped for a swift resolution of the problem.

Severing was caught by surprise as he noticed the hum of the engines.He had been spending most of the time on Europa in bed or exploring the lower parts of the ship. He had been ill for quite a while, but he had been able to hide it well. He made his way up to the brigde while he tried memorize the ship's lower level layout.

Micky, refreshed from her long nap, returned to the bridge. Taking her seat she sat down, strapped in and checked all read-outs.Micky had changed her clothes and showered before returning to the bridge. She was wearing her black unifrom instead of her blue. She sighed. it was time to get this party started.

Hue awoke to the thrumming of the reactor core he got up showered, he grabbed a brown synthleather jacket and some kackie cargo pants. He grabbed a dark T-shirt, he slid the holster on and put the Sunjet in it. Hue grabbed the jacket nad headed to the infirmy to report to Lt. Marney.

The bridge was abuzz with activity, most of the active systems were performing last cycle diagnostics before disembarking from Tybee. The reactor and associated systems were a bank of glowing green embers, and the sensors showed the situation in crystal clear detail, all systems functional. The captain sat, slouched in the command chair.

"Micky," the captain said, "Take us out, and lay in a course for Uranus. Intel has confirmed a large metallic object orbiting there, they think it is the Celeste, and that is where our search is going to start."

"Attention all hands," The captain said into the open intercomm, his voice carrying to every inch of the ship. "Prepare for heavy boost, all systems lockdown, once all systems are locked down, all crewmen report to the medbay, i repeat once all systems are locked down, all crewmen report to the medbay.

*****Lt. Marney looked like she was wearing the last halo of a particularly randy hangover. She gave Hue a weak smile as he entered the medbay. She was busy preparing the Gee-Tanks where the crew would rest, protected from the monsterous force of acceleration the ship was going to be experiencing soon.

"I've only done a hard burn like this once." she said as she keyed a sequence into one of the tank control pads. "That time we only pulled 6 Gees and only for 5 hours. I cant even imagine how fast we will be going when we finally come out of the tanks."

"I think we are actually going to try for 12 Gees, and for something like 18 hours. The plan is pretty simple, we program each tank for 20 hours. After that much time, the tank cycles and the tankee is released. Before anyone goes into a tank, we pop them with a sedative to keep them asleep for at least that long, otherwise it is a very unpleasant trip."

"The only thing I dont like is that the entire burn sequence is controled by the computer with no human observation. I dont completely trust computers, I have seen computer failures." she said.

*****The engineering compartment was awash with noise. The fuel pumps were coming up to operating pressure. The entire system was high pressure to keep the flow of fuel going into the reactor, and into the ion engines even during heavy burn. Tools and data readers lay scattered about the control section, things that would become lethal projectiles when the burn was initiated. Others would be destroyed if left out, left to crush against the bulkhead when the engines came alive.

"When I was stationed on the Gavin it was an exploration ship we did a burn from Lunar to the belt at ten g's. I hate this the stuff always gets everyhere." Hue was at the control panel for the accelaration tubes. "When Diamunde first broke out the troop transport I was on said we didn't have time to unload us from the tubes once we got there so the amde us all sit in accelaration, in full combat gear the entire trip. That was painful. Tubes one through four are ready."

"I guess that would explain the sidearm." Marney said, "I wouldnt worry too much about it now, the captain wouldnt notice it if you waved it in front of his face. His daughter was crewing on the Celeste and he has been drinking. He will be fine later, but we really dont need him right now, we are ready, and the engineers dont need his instruction. He is only needed when we get to the Celeste."

"I've seen the Gavin," she said as she preped tube 7. "I cant believe that she could actually pull 10 gees, but I guess she weighs less than she looks. The Bally is pretty d**n heavy as far as ships go, but she is 75% engine and reactor, so in perspective she doesnt weigh much."

Pockets rushed around engineering at various speeds, none of them low. She'd been an ass and left things lying about, and she didn't know where Pliers had gotten off to. Had to get everything stowed before the burn ignited, and hopefully get to where she could secure herself. She wished that she could stay and monitor the burn, but she'd be crushed if she did. She snagged the last thing and secured it, then glanced over at the guage that had registered that power fluctuation earlier. It was running normal, but it still bothered her. She hit the intercom to the bridge. "Engineering locked down and ready for burn. Chief Engineer reporting to medbay."Then she bolted down the hall to med. She didn't really care much for the Gee Tubes, but she'd have to deal. "Hi, doc."

Ao nervously chafed his palms together, ran a hand through his hair, stepped into the bay. It wasn't that he minded the acceleration, or the gees, or even the Gee Tubes- it was the sedation. He never understood why, but he hadn't enjoyed sedation during the application of his RNA learning medications, and he wouldn't enjoy it now. It was like dying, being sedated was, or going to sleep, except you were doing it without wanting or needing to, and Ao had always thought that someday, some doctor would put to much sedative into him and his heart would stop, or his muscles freeze, or something like that- irrational fears, but potent.He stepped into the medical bay, running a checklist through his mind of the things which he had put safely away in an acceleration chest. Clothes- check. Bookpad- check. PADD- check. What else was there? Oh, it didn't matter. He approached Marney."Are you sure you have the right dosage? No, don't answer that," Ao said, the beginning of his stutter coming on. "I don't want to know. Just put me under."

Micky punched in the coordinates. "Uranus coordinates are locked in Captain. Ready to begin Burn count down on your command." Ince he gave the command Micky would initiate the final count down sequence which would give her time to make it to the medlab as well. She had no desire to be liquified. She unclipped her harness and swiveled her chair to look at the Captain. Micky sat waiting for the final command.

Hue was thankful Marney didn't take the subject farther, but he would be d**ned if he got sedated on a ship with a Captain that could be willing to do anything on this mission. It was a relief that since he was the assistant medical officer that he would be put to sleep last or just before Marney.

"Just try to relax Ao, I've been sedated to many times to count for burns, not had a mishap ever, and never heard of one happening." hue tried to reassure Ao it took his mind off his own fears.

Tagget saunted into the bridge. He plopped himself at an auxillary station. After linking his HUD glasses to the station, he turned to the pilot. "Hey, anything I can help with? Working together we can cut the list and have more time before hitting the tubes."

Plies, like pockets, had spent the first while back-checking all the procedures which Jenna had performed, and triple-checked the readout to the engines. He hadnt seen that hiccup that Pockets had mentioned, but was aware that anyone in her position would know what she were doing as well as himself. Upon seeing all systems green, he left the bay and had taken a quick shower, before heading out, doing a bit of solo wandering around the dropoff.

He re-enterred the ship much later, to find the lights back on and the ship ready to lift, and he was in front of the door to the engineering bay to enter it for cleanup just as pockets left for the medbay. Pliers gave one last quick look and cleanup at the systems within the bay before heading down there himself.

The tubes were filling quickly. Lt. Marney and Hue worked with the brisk efficiency of field medics, their charges just begining the slip under the effects of the sedative as they were placed in their gee-tanks. The nervous Ao was the first to lay down in his tank. The machine lid closed with a hiss and liquid filled the tank. It was kept at body temperature, with several machines hooked up to the occupant monitoring pulse, respiration through a face mask, and EEG reading out brain waves. With a hydraulic hiss, the tube was pulled into a perpendicular angle to the gravitational axis of the ship.

If the tube was left down, the occupant would be crushed into one end of the tube, pulped into a near boneless mass of jelly. Or it was theorized, there was a failsafe that prevented the engines from firing in the event of a gee-tube being in the down, or open position.

The two engineers were next, both taking the hits like pros before enting their tubes already groggy and slurring with the effects of the sedative. They were hooked up their respective machines, and their tubes hissed into the secure position.

"Not too much longer and the bridge crew will be here." Lt. Marney said. "We might have to pull a fast one on the captain, he always insists he will sedate himself, but he isnt qualified too. If he puts up a fight, I will distract him, you pop him in the neck with the sed. I was afraid we might have had to do that to Ao, but he did fine." she said. The Lunar already looked to be deep in sleep in his gee-tube.

"Good," she said as she stowed everything away except the serum injectors for the rest of the crew. "I will be the last one in, I will hit a slower functioning dose, but only after I have my tube in the locked position." she held out a small plastic injector, one that would likely dissolve quickly in the suspension fluid.